Obama looks to Texa$ to help close fundraising gap with Romney

After two straight months of being outraised by presumptive GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, President Obama is eying today as a possible record-breaking day for fundraising in Texas.

The Obama campaign’s previous high for a day of fundraising in Texas was about $2 million, when Obama traveled to El Paso and Austin last May, a source close to Obama’s re-election campaign said. The campaign expects to raise about $3.5 million during Tuesday’s Texas stops in San Antonio and Austin.

The Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee reportedly raised $106 million in June, outpacing Obama’s campaign, which tallied $71 million.

The president will attend an event at Austin Music Hall on Tuesday evening after an afternoon fundraising reception in San Antonio at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center. The campaign said it expects about 1,000 people at the Austin event.

Obama is scheduled make his remarks at the Austin Music Hall event at 5:45 p.m. on Tuesday. That follows his scheduled remarks at about 1 p.m. at the San Antonio reception, where he will be joined by actress Eva Longoria; Mayor Julián Castro; and U.S. Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, D-San Antonio, according to the campaign’s website.

In Austin, the event will be organized, in part, by the LGBT Leadership Council and feature musician Jerry Jeff Walker. The event is open to supporters who pay $250 for general admission seating or $1,000 for preferred seating, according to the campaign website.

Officials with the Texas Democratic Party would not say how many elected officials are expected to attend, adding that it is not involved in planning the event. That said, the party is optimistic the visit will provide some energy for Texas Democrats.

“We’re always excited to welcome the president to Texas. President Obama fires up and motivates our base,” Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Rebecca Acuña said in an email. “These same Democrats are also excited about the strong slate of candidates we have going into November.”

The president will also attend a more exclusive event at the Four Seasons hotel, hosted by former Dell Inc. finance chief Tom Meredith, according to the Austin American-Statesman.

“We have momentum, excitement on the ground, and more grassroots donors and volunteers than any campaign in history,” Ann Marie Habershaw, the chief operating officer for Obama for America, wrote to supporters in an email.

Despite being outraised by his challenger, the Obama camp is likely to continue pouring money into ads challenging Romney’s qualifications. On his website, Romney cites a Washington Post study that finds Obama has spent more than $51 million in television ads, compared with Romney’s $23 million. Romney says that despite the surge in the Obama campaign’s spending, he is narrowing the gap.

“The three most recent national polls (released since Friday afternoon), show the presidential race to be a dead heat – Rasmussen has the race tied, while both the Gallup tracking and the recent McClatchy/Marist poll show President Obama with a two-point margin,” the Romney campaign said on its campaign website. “If throwing the kitchen sink at Gov. Romney while leveraging a two-to-one ad-spending advantage doesn’t move numbers for the President, that’s got to tell you something about the state of the electorate.”